Original manufacturers provide protection against theft of their automobiles through the use of an ignition lock. However, it is relatively easy for a professional thief to defeat an ignition lock by using a master key or a tool for forceably removing the lock, such as a dent puller. Accordingly, ignition locks in themselves offer relatively little protection, and automobile theft continues to be a major problem in the United States, especially in larger cities.
In most American automobiles, the ignition lock is mounted on the steering column. In automobiles having such an arrangement, it is possible to provide effective protection of the ignition lock using a device such as the Auto Watchman, which is manufactured by the assignee of the present application, Wolo Manufacturing Corporation, and is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,494,391. But, in many automobiles, especially foreign makes, the ignition lock is mounted on or adjacent the dashboard, and thus cannot be protected in this manner.
Commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,658,613 discloses another ignition lock protector that additionally includes a lock bar which engages the gearshift lever in cars with a column-mounted gearshift. This device not only protects the ignition lock from tampering, but prevents the gear shift lever from being moved out of the "park" position (or the parking gear, in a standard transmission).
A number of other types of theft-deterrent accessory devices, that do not require a steering column-mounted ignition lock or column-mounted gearshift lever, have been proposed. But, many of these devices are of limited value. It would be desirable, therefore, to provide an effective deterrent against car theft for cars that do not have steering-column-mounted ignition locks and further do not have column-mounted gearshift levers.